# Stock transfer

A stock transfer moves inventory a retailer already holds from one location to another, such as between stores or from a warehouse to a store.

- **Is:** Moving stock the retailer already holds from one location to another.
- **Use when:** One location is short and another holds more than it will sell.
- **Watch for:** Moving the shortage. Check the sending location's own cover first.

## What it means for retail and category teams

Transfers rebalance stock that is in the wrong place: one location short while another holds more than it will sell. They are common late in a season, after a promotion, or when a store's demand drifts from its allocation. Each transfer has a cost in handling, freight and time in transit, so they are usually kept for lines where the value recovered clearly exceeds it.

## Why it matters

When the units already exist in the network, a transfer is often cheaper and faster than a new order, and it can avoid a markdown at the overstocked location. It can also move a problem: if the sending location was about to sell the stock, the transfer creates a shortage there.

## How Twelfth handles this

In twelfth, a transfer is one of the decision types that moves through the decision pipeline. It is surfaced when one location is short while another is long on the same line, showing the recommended quantity, source, destination and the cover at each end. A person commits the move, and it waits in Pending until the transfer is booked.

## Illustrative example

The business and figures are illustrative. None of it is customer data.

As winter sets in, a coastal store holds 40 heaters selling 2 a week while an inland store holds 5 selling 10 a week. Moving 20 units inland gives the inland store 2.5 weeks of cover without buying more, leaves the coastal store 10 weeks, and cuts the number of heaters it may have to mark down in spring.

**Heaters as winter starts**

| | Cover now | Cover after moving 20 | Result |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Coastal store (40 on hand, sells 2 a week) | 20 wks | 10 wks | Less to mark down |
| Inland store (5 on hand, sells 10 a week) | 0.5 wks | 2.5 wks | Gap closed |

Moving 20 heaters fixes the inland gap without buying any more.

## Related concepts

- [Weeks of cover](https://twelfth.ai/glossary/weeks-of-cover)
- [Stockout](https://twelfth.ai/glossary/stockout)
- [Decision pipeline](https://twelfth.ai/glossary/decision-pipeline)

## Next step

### Work through an availability decision

Bring a product that keeps running short or sitting too long. We can examine the stock, demand and options together.

- [Book a demo](https://twelfth.ai/book-a-demo)
- [twelfth for merchandise planners](https://twelfth.ai/for/merchandise-planners): Continuous demand, cover and flow monitoring that shows where the buy plan and the actual trade have come apart.

Source: https://twelfth.ai/glossary/stock-transfer